The funders want you to do something for nature but the purpose of your group is to help people or animals and you are already delivering many other things. Does this really apply to you?
In short – yes it does! But don’t worry.

Environet Cymru is a Welsh Government programme working to support
any community group or third sector organisation wanting to start
or develop an environmental project.

Why have a policy that supports and helps
nature?

Nature needs us to allow it space to live. We get a great
deal of benefit from nature; it feeds us, clothes us, cleans our
air and water and makes us feel happy and relaxed. If we want to
keep getting those benefits and we want our children and
grandchildren to experience nature then we need to give it a hand
because nature is in decline - at local and global levels.

This is recognised in the
Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015
which sets out 7 goals for Wales to work towards. One of
these goals is about healthy, functioning ecosystems - nature -
which can provide us with a resilient natural environment that can
cope with future changes. It is likely that contributions towards
this (alongside the other goals) will become a future requirement
of public funding.

The suggestions here are simple to apply and will most
certainly:

Save you money, meeting trustees' responsibilities

Save you time, more time to do the important things

Improve staff and volunteer work experience

Improve well-being

Meet the group's obligations to meet the requirements of the
Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act
2015

Increase opportunities to have a wider influence on
society

We can help nature by thinking about whether what we are doing is
going to be harmful, maybe miles away and weeks or years later and
what the alternatives are. When we know what we are doing and
understand some of the implications, we can make informed decisions
and do things differently.

Sometimes the first steps towards doing positive things for
nature may simply be to stop doing negative things. Even slight
changes can have very real impacts. Using peat-free compost,
putting scraps out for the birds, leaving nooks and crannies for
insects will benefit nature as well as you and your volunteers - as
the following guide shows.

2. Finding Opportunities to Do
More

As well as stopping the negative things, there are many positive
things that we can do for nature that almost invariably benefit us
as well. The guide below shows simple, effective actions that can
be taken from the kitchen to the garden to the wider countryside
and explains why these are important and the impacts they can
have.

3. Writing and Implementing a
Policy
If you decide that you can do more for nature then embedding your
chosen actions into an environmental policy will help ensure that
they are followed consistently across your group or organisation.
It will also demonstrate to funders, and to people who may want to
procure your services, that you have a rounded understanding of
sustainability and Wales's well-being goals.

Third sector organisations have often led the way on key
environmental issues such as recycling, energy efficiency and
greenhouse gas emissions and we mustn't allow nature to be left
behind. We can all make space for nature, and we need to, for
our own health and well being, now and into the future.

The suggestions below show how you can bring nature into your
existing environmental policies and the accompanying guide shows
the simple steps you can take in your home or workplace to stop
actions that harm nature and increase actions that will help nature
and wildlife to thrive.

Can we help you?

Quick links

Membership

WCVA is the national membership organisation for the third sector in Wales. Our vision is for the third sector and volunteering to thrive and improve well-being for all. We aim to achieve this by influencing, connecting and enabling.